Find out if you need a resource consent

To help you, we have a
resource consent duty planner available between 1pm to 4.30pm every day from
Monday to Friday. We want to save you time and worry and our planners will be
able to answer general questions about the District Plan or whether resource
consent is needed for your project. Simply phone us on (04) 237 5089, or come
to our Customer Services Centre at 16 Cobham Court, Porirua.

The first two hours of advice are free.

For projects involving
subdivision or land development with building work, you will need a resource
consent for the overall activity and a building consent for the building work.

Explanation
of officer rates

Rates are
not dependent on the experience level of the processing officer. Applicants are
entitled to the same quality and timeliness of service independent of the
officer’s experience. Chargeable hours are adjusted downwards accordingly for
less experienced staff such that learning and mentoring required is not charged
for. It’s not considered equitable to charge a higher rate purely because a
more experienced staff member is processing their application when the
chargeable time involved in the same.

Recovery
time spent on pre-application – discussions, assessment and feedback

Council’s
Policy for Administrative Charges under the Resource Management Act 1991 states
that advice provided by Council officers prior to an application being received
may be charged for after the second hour at the relevant hourly rate that
applies for that particular financial year as contained within the Schedule of
Administrative Charges under the Resource Management Act 1991.

Small Building Sites Minimum Erosion and Sediment Control Requirements (particularly relevant to Aotea)

Boundary Activities

The Resource Management Act has been amended on 18 October 2017 to allow for certain infringements on boundaries to not have to go through a standard resource consent application process. Such infringements are known as a ‘Boundary Activity‘ and are applicable in situations where:

Resource consent is required due to the infringement of one of more 'boundary rules';

No other District Plan rules are infringed; and

No infringed boundary is a ‘public boundary’.

Examples of ‘boundary rules’ in the Porirua City District Plan is the ‘Other Yards’ and ‘Height Recession Plane’ Permitted Activity Standards. In situations where the infringement of the ‘boundary rule’ is with a boundary adjoining a public area such as a Road, Neighbourhood Park, or Esplanade Reserve then the proposal cannot be treated as Boundary Activity.

In such situations you will still need to apply to us for a Boundary Activity for the proposal to be able to be treated as a Permitted Activity. As part of your application, certain information will need to be provided and the written approval from each owner of an adjoining allotment with an infringed boundary included. The application form and written approval form which are to be used are below. The information requirements are set out within the form.

Submit your application

Resource consent applications can now be submitted online via our new online portal.

Note that you need to create an online account in order to submit your application. Once you are all setup, click on services and select resource consent interim application form. Enter the information requested on the online form and upload your documents. As this is not a full application form, you will still need to upload your Form 9 application form and any other documentation to support your application. Once submitted, a copy of our invoice will follow shortly.

Alternatively, if you wish to submit a hard copy of your resource consent application, we need two copies of your application, supporting documents, and originals of all plans.

Fees – what it will cost

You need to pay a deposit when you submit
your application. When we finish processing your application, we will invoice
you for any extra costs.

There is an hourly charge of $168 for any extra time needed to process an application beyond the value of the
deposit. You may also be charged for the time we spend providing advice to you
before we receive your application, if it is longer than two hours.

The full
costs will be charged for the chair and up to 2 committee members’ involvement
(a total of 3 councillors) in hearings for plan changes and notified resource
consents. The level of the charge will
be based on the attendance fees for councillors prescribed by legislation, and
may include additional time spent by Councillors in formal pre-hearing
meetings, formal committee deliberations and at formal site inspections as part
of a group inspection or as part of a pre-hearing meeting. The costs of councillor involvement in
hearings for council-adopted plan changes; or designations and heritage orders
under Part 8 of the RMA will not be recovered.

The
monitoring charge becomes payable upon grant of resource consent, and/or
confirmation of a requirement for designation.
In addition, the Council will recover additional costs from the consent
holder for officer time should more than one inspection and associated activities
be required, based on the ‘officer time hourly rate’.

This charge
applies to recovering costs associated with time spent on resource consent
related work after a resource consent has been granted and in the case of
subdivision, before Section 224 RMA certification is applied for. This includes
time spent by Council Staff, Wellington Water Staff and specialist consultants.
Such work includes:

Assessment
and certification of management plans and any other material required to be
submitted as conditions of consent, prior to the commencement of works or
and/or during works being carried out.

The
overseeing/inspection/testing of physical works being carried out on
infrastructure assets proposed to be vested in Council including 3 Waters,
Roads and Reserves.

Any
communications with consent holders and/or administrative tasks associated with
carrying out this type of work.

Councillor attendance at hearings for plan changes, designations, heritage orders: Members per hour

$80

Specialist advice (see note 8 below)

Actual

Retrieving a certificate of title and associated instruments - per certificate

$21.00

Retrieving a certificate of title and associated instruments - per each additional instrument

$7.00

Note 8:

Consultant's
and legal fees associated with the processing of a consent, certificate,
designation, or private plan change (including specialist technical or legal
advice); or where a consent involves creating legal instruments, will be
charged at cost and recovered in full.

Minor land use application means an application for a land use activity (excluding non-residential activities in the Suburban Zone) that:

- in the Suburban Zone, does not comply with the Suburban Zone permitted activity standards; or

- in the Rural Zone, is a controlled activity; and

- for which applicants provide evidence of consultation in accordance with the Fourth Schedule of the Resource Management Act 1991

Note 2:

The monitoring charge becomes payable upon grant of resource consent, and/or confirmation of a requirement for designation. In addition, the Council will recover additional costs from the consent holder for officer time should more than one inspection and associated activities be required, based on the ‘officer time hourly rate’.

Note 3:

"Actual" means the actual and reasonable cost of the activity that is being charged for and includes hearing, commissioner, advertising and public notification costs, and costs relating to printing, production and distribution of material. In respect to plan changes and heritage orders, these charges will not be recovered on plan changes adopted by Council.

Note 4:

The full costs will be charged for the chair and up to 2 committee members’ involvement (a total of 3 councillors) in hearings for plan changes and notified resource consents. The level of the charge will be based on the attendance fees for councillors prescribed by legislation, and may include additional time spent by Councillors in formal pre-hearing meetings, formal committee deliberations and at formal site inspections as part of a group inspection or as part of a pre-hearing meeting. The costs of councillor involvement in hearings for council-adopted plan changes; or designations and heritage orders under Part 8 of the RMA will not be recovered.

Note 5:

This charge does not apply to applications for existing designations to be rolled over at a time of plan review.

Note 6:

This charge applies to recovering costs associated with removing a designation, or part of a designation, from the District Plan planning maps and text and updating these documents

Note 7:

The full and actual costs of processing any Private Plan Change request shall be recovered. If Council does not have in-house capacity and or/expertise to assess, process and/or report on all or any part of the private plan change request, it will advise the applicant and seek to engage an appropriate external consultant/s to fulfil this function. Where this occurs Council will advise the applicant of its preferred consultant and any associated quote for costs. Should the applicant choose to proceed with the application the Council will recover the full actual and reasonable costs of any engaged consultant/s. All Private Plan Change requests will require the payment of an initial deposit of $10,000. The initial deposit covers: the initial decision to accept or adopt the plan in whole or in part; notification and mail out costs; the processing of submissions; the preparation of any officers report; and costs associated with hearings and decisions, providing that the deposit only covers the plan change application process to the extent that the "additional per hour" rate and/or Council's actual costs are more than $10,000 then the additional costs for any engaged consultant/s, do not exceed $10,000. If Council's actual costs are more than $10,000 then the additional costs shall be recovered in full or as agreed with the applicant. Council retains the right to withhold the public notification of any accepted private plan change and/or the notification of an operative date for any private plan changed until all actual costs associated with processing, assessment, reporting and any hearing on the private plan change have been settled and paid in full.

Note 8:

Consultant's and legal fees associated with the processing of a consent, certificate, designation, or private plan change (including specialist technical or legal advice); or where a consent involves creating legal instruments, will be charged at cost and recovered in full.

Note 9:

This charge applies to recovering costs associated with time spent on resource consent related work after a resource consent has been granted and in the case of subdivision, before Section 224 RMA certification is applied for. This includes time spent by Council Staff, Wellington Water Staff and specialist consultants. Such work includes:

Assessment and certification of management plans and any other material required to be submitted as conditions of consent, prior to the commencement of works or and/or during works being carried out.

The overseeing/inspection/testing of physical works being carried out on infrastructure assets proposed to be vested in Council including 3 Waters, Roads and Reserves.

Any communications with consent holders and/or administrative tasks associated with carrying out this type of work.

Explanation of officer rates

Rates are not dependent on the experience level of the processing officer. Applicants are entitled to the same quality and timeliness of service independent of the officer’s experience. Chargeable hours are adjusted downwards accordingly for less experienced staff such that learning and mentoring required is not charged for. It’s not considered equitable to charge a higher rate purely because a more experienced staff member is processing their application when the chargeable time involved in the same.

Recovery time spent on pre-application – discussions, assessment and feedback

Council’s Policy for Administrative Charges under the Resource Management Act 1991 states that advice provided by Council officers prior to an application being received may be charged for after the second hour at the relevant hourly rate that applies for that particular financial year as contained within the Schedule of Administrative Charges under the Resource Management Act 1991.

What happens next

When we receive your resource consent application, we will decide whether other people or organisations need to be consulted about the project. This determines how the application will be processed and how long it will take.

We sort applications into three categories:

publicly notified –the public need to know about your project

limited notification –the people affected by your project need to be told about it

non-notified – It’s not considered to affect others, or if it does, you’ve already gained their written approval.

If your resource consent application needs to be notified, you’ll be told what to do.

You can carry out the consultation yourself or employ a consultant to do it for you.

How long it could take

If your application is straight forward and non-notified (it
doesn’t need to involve other people or organisations), it takes up to 20
working days to process from the time we accept it and receive your deposit.

We’ll contact you if we need more information to process your
application. The 20-day clock will be paused until we receive what we need.

Notified applications (those that could affect other people or the
public) will take longer, to give people time to respond. More time is required
if there are submissions or objections to an application and a hearing is
needed.